 Mariam Makhniashvili has been missing since Sept. 14, 2009. (HO)
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TORONTO -- The family of missing Mariam Makhniashvili doesn't have much to celebrate this Christmas.
"We can't do any special things, we just live in a different space where there is no Christmas," said Mariam's father, Vakhtang, yesterday. "Of course we usually celebrate it and it's our favourite holiday, but not this year."
Mariam, now 18, has been missing since she walked to her school in the Bathurst St.-Eglinton Ave. W. area on Sept. 14 with her younger brother George.
"Everything before Sept. 14 was just absolutely different and since then everything has changed and we just don't know whether one particular day is more difficult than another," Vakhtang Makhniashvili said.
Makhniashvili, 49, said his family is trying to cope and even though a measurable amount of time has passed since Mariam vanished, there's no hint of normalcy. There is little to no laughter in their Shallmar Blvd. apartment.
Makniashvilli said he does 15 minutes of yoga each day but nothing else from his life before Mariam vanished.
"We were a very outgoing family and we would watch movies and we were going to museums," he said.
Son George tries to keep busy by singing in the Forest Hill Collegiate Institute choir, his dad said.
Since Mariam vanished, Toronto Police have maintained there is no evidence to suggest foul play. But at the same time, there is no evidence to suggest the young woman ran away on her own.
So far investigators have initiated two garbage dump searches, scoured area parks with helicopters, and seized computers from two public library branches.
Police also interviewed every student at Forest Hill C.I. as well as about 6,000 residents in the Eglinton-Bathurst area.
And although the Makhniashvili family's only relatives are still back in the Republic of Georgia, they aren't thinking of taking any trips back to their native country, Makhniashvili said.
"I can't leave Canada at least until my daughter is found," he said.
An uncorroborated tip about a Mariam Makhniashvili sighting south of Calgary created a media frenzy earlier this month, more than a month after the information came in.
The story hit newspaper websites and the top of radio and TV newscasts before Toronto Police sent out a press release saying "there is no evidence to corroborate the information" received in the tip.
BRETT.CLARKSON@SUNMEDIA.CA
